This
volume presents a comprehensive examination of the work of René
Zavaleta Mercado (1939-1984), the most notable Bolivian political
thinker of the twentieth century. While Zavaleta did not live to see
the triumph of the indigenous social movements that have made Bolivia
famous in recent years, his writings influenced many of the activists
and ideologues who made today's changes possible. This exploration of
Zavaleta's work by Luis Tapia, a contemporary political analyst who
has been a colleague of many of the central actors in today's
government, presents a detailed panorama of Bolivian history that
establishes the context of Zavaleta's analysis of the events of his
time, from the revolutionary nationalist movement which took power in
1952 through the military dictatorships that followed it from 1964
onwards to the popular protests that eventually defeated the
dictatorship and restored democratic government in 1982. The book
will be necessary reading for anyone who wants to understand the
decades of history and the ideological currents that laid the
groundwork for the rise to power of the neo-indigenists lead by Evo
Morales in the twenty-first century.